Forcing a Miracle

Forcing a Miracle, 2012

Frieze London

Forcing a Miracle was a project that intended to make the ground – soil, grass and stones – burn and produce smoke. Rajkowska transformed an area of Regent’s Park close to the Frieze tent into a field of smoking incense. The smoke, distinct but gentle, served as a physical emanation of thoughts, secret wishes and desires of people coming to the fair and those who are already part of it. It was both a comment on Frieze London as a certain state of mind and the artist’s personal need for a miracle. Burning incense is a ritual used by many religions and spiritual groups. It offers a refined sensory experience and has an appealing physicality, effectively blurring the image of reality. It ‘blesses’ things as they are without changing them. At the same time it addressed the artist’s deep need to leave the area of the fair and go out: translate the land art legacy into a subtle, public but ephemeral experience. The artist wanted the project to rekindle the desire for miracles, for something beyond human understanding, that she perceives as being essentially human.